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Posts Tagged ‘Affordable Care Act’

“The IRS recently issued Notice 2017-67 to provide guidance on “qualified small employer health reimbursement arrangements” (qualified small employer HRAs) under Sec. 9831(d). Qualified small employer HRAs enable an eligible employer to reimburse employees for medical expenses, such as health insurance premiums, as defined under Sec. 213(d). Qualified small employer HRAs are solely employer-funded; employees cannot contribute to them. Payments from a qualified small employer HRA to an employee are not includible in the employee’s income, as long as the employee has obtained qualifying health insurance. An employer can establish a qualified small employer HRA for tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2016. The guidance within Notice 2017-67 is effective for arrangement plan years beginning on or after Nov. 20, 2017.

“The Department of Health and Human Services has posted its long-awaited proposed rule to make it easier to form “association health plans,” aimed at groups of workers who team up to get better deals on health insurance. Among other things, the rule would encourage these kinds of plans by removing the requirement that says associations have to have a purpose besides health insurance.

The bottom line: The rule says its goal is to help small businesses buy health coverage more easily, but the bigger question is whether they’d pull healthy people out of the Affordable Care Act exchanges.”

“If you bought health insurance during the Affordable Care Act open enrollment, congratulations. Your major health care needs, known and unknown, should be covered without risk of financial ruin. You may feel you are set until the next open enrollment. But you might actually have more work to do to make sure you are truly protected.

“Cindy Purvance of Park City, Utah, was incensed when she received a letter in the mail, alerting her that her family’s health insurance premium would skyrocket to $1,300 a month next year – a $500 increase.

“The potential for Senate Republicans to unravel Obamacare this week diminished on Sunday, when two GOP senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Ted Cruz of Texas said their support was unlikely.

Even though the bill drafted by Sens. Lindsey Graham R-S.C. and Bill Cassidy R-La., is on the verge of failure — and may not even get a vote by the end of the month — as long as Republicans control the House, Senate and the White House, attempts may continue to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance plan.

“The Trump administration is slashing spending on advertising and promotion for enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, a move some critics charged was a blatant attempt to sabotage the law.

Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services, who insisted on not being identified during a conference call with reporters, said on Thursday that the advertising budget for the open enrollment period that starts in November would be cut to $10 million, compared with $100 million spent by the Obama administration last year, a drop of 90 percent. Additionally, grants to about 100 nonprofit groups, known as navigators, that help people enroll in health plans offered by the insurance marketplaces will be cut to a total of $36 million, from about $63 million.

“Welcome to Fix My Finances, a Yahoo Finance personal finance series. Each episode, we take a look at one viewer’s financial state of affairs and offer advice, insight and information on a variety of issues, including how to save more, spend less and pay off lingering debt.

“Around this time of year, many human resources executives and brokers are putting the finishing touches on health insurance plans they’ll offer to employees in the fall. They face tough questions: Will rising costs be swallowed by the company? Or will the bitter pill be passed down to employees?

“A public option as an alternative or addition to subsidized private individual coverage under the Affordable Care Act is gaining momentum on the campaign trail ahead of next year’s 2018 midterm Congressional and gubernatorial elections.

“In November 2015, Tina Heck was in her garage lifting 40-pound bags of wood pellets to fuel her heating stove, when something went very wrong with her back.
“The next day, I could barely walk,” said the 55-year-old who lives on an acre of land in Nevada City, Calif., 60 miles northeast of Sacramento. The cause: a bulging disc in her lower spine, which shoots pain down her leg and makes her back stiff.

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2015 Open Enrollment

Here are 4 key dates you should know:

• November 15, 2014. Open Enrollment begins. Apply for, keep, or change your coverage.
• December 15, 2014. Enroll by the 15th if you want new coverage that begins on January 1, 2015. If your plan is changing or you want to change plans, enroll by the 15th to avoid a lapse in coverage.
• December 31, 2014. Coverage ends for 2014 plans. Coverage for 2015 plans can start as soon as January 1st.
• February 15, 2015. This is the last day you can apply for 2015 coverage before the end of Open Enrollment.